Launch Week for Switchblade, LA’s New Noir

Back in March, I wrote aboutChaparral‘s upcoming focus on noir, and now I’m here to tell you about Switchblade, PM Press‘ new imprint wholly devoted to noir. The two inaugural offerings from Switchblade both take place in Los Angeles. Gary Phillips’ The Jook imagines the would-be come-back of a pro football player after LA gets a new franchise. “Just as it seems he might be getting back in the flow, he’s enraptured by Wilma Wells, the leggy and brainy lawyer for the team–who has a ruthless game plan all her own.” Summer Brenner’s I-5 tells a story of all sorts of traffic–sex trafficking, crime, and freeways.

Switchblade bills itself as “a different slice of hardboiled fiction where the dreamers and the schemers, the dispossessed and the damned, and the hobos and the rebels tango at the edge of society.” You can get a taste of the hardboiled goodness tomorrow night at the Mystery Bookstore in Westwood and Thursday night at Skylight in Los Feliz. (An aside: I just noticed while writing this post, that Lawrence Block and George Pelecanos will be at the Mystery Bookstore on the 19th. Wow.) Sadly, I cannot make either event, but I hope to manage the private launch party nonetheless (shameless, I know). I am assured the absinthe will flow freely.

One Reply to “Launch Week for Switchblade, LA’s New Noir”

One of the cool things about this is that The Jook is a reprint. It’s a great book and it’s good to know it will be back on shelves. Phillips has a way of capturing L.A. like nobody else. If you get a chance, check out his novel Bangers.